Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Let's head to 1930's Shanghai with Mingmei Yip who talks about her latest novel The Nine Fold Heaven––"As a woman writer, I am extremely intrigued by beautiful, talented and scheming women. One may not want them as friends but as characters, they are exciting. "

ISBN-13: 9780758273543

Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation

Publication date: 6/25/2013

Pages: 320

Overview:"A unique and
enthralling style. . .flawless." —Baltimore Books Examiner In this mesmerizing new novel, Mingmei Yip draws readers deeper into the exotic world of 1930s Shanghai first explored in Skeleton Women, and into the lives of the unforgettable Camilla, Shadow, and Rainbow Chang.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Hi Mingmei welcome back to The Reading Frenzy, I hosted you when your last novel Skeleton Women came out a year ago. (click link
for interview)

Thank you Debbie for having me back!

Tell us a little about your new novel The Nine Fold Heaven,
I loved it by the way.

I am pleased that you liked it! As you know, The Nine Fold Heaven is about three femmes fatales – referred to as “skeleton women,” in Chinese. They are the singer spy Camilla, the magician Shadow, and the gossip columnist Rainbow Chang. But the journey is mainly Camilla’s. She undertakes an emotional and dangerous trip
back to Shanghai to reunite with her lost lovers, to find the baby she was told was stillborn, and to discover
the secret of her parents’ murder.

Nine Fold Heaven is part of a series of Skeleton Women (femmes fatales) but can be read as a stand alone book.

This is a sequel to your last novel Skeleton Women staring
Camilla the spy.

Camilla is a rather dark or noir heroine and she doesn’t make many excuses for how she goes about her business. Why did you decide to paint her in this light?

As a woman writer, I am extremely intrigued by beautiful,
talented and scheming women. One may not want them as friends but as
characters, they are exciting. So I decided to explore this character type by
writing about them. Camilla the nightclub singer was trained to be a spy by her
gangster boss. Her mission: to seduce, then assassinate his arch rival,
gangster head Master Lung.

But there are obstacles on Camilla’s path to completing her assignment. She falls in love! Not only with Master Lung’s Harvard educated lawyer son, but also Lung’s rough, but loyal, bodyguard Gao. Worse, her arch rival, the magician Shadow, whose repertoire of tricks including jumping to her own disappearance and making a castle vanish, schemes for the heart of Camilla’s lover, Master Lung. Both women, however, realizing that they are both helpless women struggling to survive at the margins of society, decide to join to help each other.

Although
I am fortunate to have a far easier life than my characters, I can feel these
marginal women’s sufferings. Perhaps it is because I grew up in Hong Kong, a
city of great wealth, but also of many human tragedies. So I can see the
helplessness, and vulnerability behind thepretty faces and ruthless schemes. But despite their desperate
expediencies, my main characters also, have some good that shine through in the
ends.

If you had to describe Camilla in one word for our audience
what would it be?

self-reliant.

1930’s Shanghai is represented as a lawless and corrupt
time.
Is this the way it really was?
Why did you choose this particular time?

I love history, because it is like a mirror
reflecting all that’sgood and bad
in humanity. I think the 1930’s Shanghai is one of the sexiest eras in world
history, populated with larger than life characters: glamorous women, , cynical
politicians, and corrupt police. But also with idealists trying to help China
find its way in the modern world.

It was a
time of extremes – from sybaritic luxury to abject poverty. I have tried to
describe both from the indulgences of the rich to the miseries of the poor. But
even for the rich, life was full of dangers.

Few of the
rich came by their wealth honestly. There were always many ready to usurp their
place, by guile if possible, or by murder if necessary. Those without money
were expendable, particularly parentless children abandoned to orphanages. This
had been Camilla’s fate, and also two of my actually virtuous characters -- the
little blind girl and the baby she takes care of.

Nine Fold Heaven is a beautiful mix of cultures and traditions and it’s a true sequel to Skeleton Women.
As the author do you think it is beneficial to read the novels in order?

I wrote The Nine Fold Heaven in a way that it can be read as a stand alone book. But if readers like the three femmes fatales and want to learn more about them, then they will enjoyreading Skeleton Women as a prequel.Also, anyone out there who wants to know how a magician can make an
entire building disappear will learn how in this novel.

I teach calligraphy workshops
quite regularly. This year’s was at Lincoln Center, sponsored by the New York
Philharmonic, last year I did one for the lunar new year at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.

Are you working on another novel?

Yes, my next and sixth novel is Needle of a Thousand Beauties, to be
published by Kensington Books in 2014.

It is about a young woman who escapes a ghost marriage to join a community of celebrate embroiderers. Soon, stifled by the rigid routines of the group, she helps herself to one of their treasures – an imperial robe. Chased by agents of a secret society, she makes her way to Beijing. There she finds work in an embroidery shop, only to be tricked into marrying the boss’ son. Escaping again, she falls in love with a revolutionary and lives an even more dangerous life. Despite all these distractions, she continues with her needlework and earns fame and respect.

Mingmei, many authors belong to writing or critique groups.
Do you?

I used to have a writing group but since it has dissolved I am now on my own. I rely on my husband Geoffrey Redmond, a medical doctor, butalso an excellent writer himself with six books to his credit and two
more on the way. He is the first one to read everything I write and always has
helpful feedback.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

I’m embarrassed to say that I
am a little crazy about containers, especially purses, wallets, thermos, and
boxes – tin biscuit boxes, lunch boxes, metal or ceramic tea boxes. So when I
take breaks from writing, I’ll go online to search for these. Somehow just
looking at them makes me very happy.

Here is a purse I bought in
San Francisco’s China Town, I added the jade myself.

Another prized possession is
a thermos that was a gift from the West Point Military Academy, after I gave a
lecture on Sunzi’s Art of War to their cadets in 2008. My great uncle studied
at West Point – he was a famous general in China. For myself, however, I have
noliking for military matters,
just mild curiosity.

Mingmei’s lecture at West Point Military Academy

Mingmei do you have any signings or events celebrating the release of Nine Fold Heaven?

I am planning to do a signing
at the Barnes and Noble in Honolulu this November and another one at the CUNY
Asian Asian American Research Institute in New York. Other venues are in the
works.

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us about
your new novel, your art and your children’s books. Good luck with all your
endeavors.

The Songbird/spy Camilla’s escaped to Hong Kong after
successfully fulfilling her lifelong mission for her gangland boss. She’s left
behind her son, JinJin, who she was told was stillborn but who’s visits to her
dreams tell her otherwise and her son’s father, JinYing, whom she loves the
best. She has no choice but to return to Shanghai to try to solve the mysteries
of her son and lover but to do this she’ll need to resort to her “Skeleton
Woman” spy ways of manipulation and exploitation to get the information she
needs. She also must be wary of her enemies who still search for her and even
those she now befriends must be watched for they could turn on her at any
moment.

Mingmei brings us the sequel to her novel Skeleton Women
about the unscrupulous yet loveable spy Camilla. Camilla is a noir heroine who
readers will love to hate or hate to love. The author makes it clear she’s a
product of her environment and never apologizes for her behavior which she
shouldn’t. The narrative is colorful and an exotic mix of cultures and
traditions and will bring the sounds and flavors of a troubled lawless past
society to life. For ultimate understanding and enjoyment the two books should
be read in order.

Thanks Debbie for the interview, I hope readers are having as much fun reading my novels as I was writing them. Happy reading! I'm now finising my new and sixth novel about China's most respected embroiderer, to be published in 2014.

Note: this blog uses affiliate ad- links if you choose to click a link and make a purchase using a link the blog gets a small commission that goes toward blog expenses and costs you nothing

If you enter a giveaway on this blog Rafflecopter captures only your email information which is only used to contact you in the event you are the winner and is never stored or used for any other purpose.

Note: this blog uses affiliate ad- links if you choose to click a link and make a purchase using a link the blog gets a small commission that goes toward blog expenses and costs you nothing

If you enter a giveaway on this blog Rafflecopter captures only your email information which is only used to contact you in the event you are the winner and is never stored or used for any other purpose.